Teachers rally against layoffs

March 22, 2012

WOONSOCKET â€” After collecting national honors for her role as a Woonsocket High School science teacher, you wouldn't think Claire Laquerre would be worried about whether she might still have her job next year.
But Laquerre, a 28-year teaching veteran who rehabbed her classroom at the high school into a state-of-the-art biotechnology lab, received a layoff notice from the School Committee along with all the rest of the school department's teachers two weeks ago. Laquerre, who received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching Science in 2009, now doesn't know what the future holds for her career.
â€śIt's a crushing feeling,â€ť Laquerre said of her layoff as American Federation of Teachers President, Randi Weingarten, arrived at the school Thursday to show support for local teachers just before the dismissal of students.
â€śI still try to come to work and give my best but it does affect you,â€ť Laquerre admitted. â€śIt affects you and it affects the students,â€ť she said. â€śThey wonder if you are going to be back next year and they will be able to take your class,â€ť she said.
For her own part, Laquerre said it is still not clear whether the School Committee would rehire teachers according to seniority or under another plan if the city were to slip into state-controlled receivership as was debated by the City Council Wednesday night in Harris Hall.
Under the latter scenario veteran teachers might be left by the wayside for lower-paid new teachers as a course to the highest possible savings. Mayor Leo T. Fontaine has also asked all city employees, including the school department's 500 some odd teachers to take a 10-percent pay cut in the current fiscal year to help the city cover a projected $10 million school budget deficit over the past two years.
The uncertainty of the Woonsocket School Department's future has Laquerre and many of her peers wondering what their next step should be.
â€śI don't want to leave because I chose to work in Woonsocket
when I became a teacher. I graduated from Woonsocket High School and I knew what Woonsocket students were going through and wanted to give something back to my community,â€ť she said.
But Laquerre also feels that local teachers have done their part in trying to help the city with its budget problems while agreeing to no pay raises over the past five years and accepting significant changes in their health care insurance to the city's benefit.
To add a 10-percent pay cut on top of those agreed upon concessions might be too much to ask of local teachers, she said.
â€śI want to stay in Woonsocket, but with a 10-percent reduction in pay, I don't know if I can afford to stay,â€ť she said.
Weingarten, who was joined at the press conference by local AFT leaders and educators and state union representatives, suggested that Rhode Island seems to be taking advantage of a downturn in the economy to back off financial support for education just as some other states have done.
The national union official pointed to her recent visits to Japan, where an earthquake and tsunami devastated the country, and other nations hit by the world's economic recession where she found a different commitment to education despite the same economic challenges.
The countries Weingarten visited all outperform the United States in education and also have not allowed the economic downturn to impact their students, she said.
â€śEvery single one of them have made sure that even in economic downturns kids do not get hurt.â€ť Weingarten said. â€śAnd they don't pretend that kids and teachers have different interests. They don't try to divide the people who every single day give their heart and souls for children from the children themselves,â€ť she said.
Countries such as Japan, Singapore, China, Norway and Canada, haven't cut school funding the way Rhode Island has, she suggested, and haven't put other issues before their schools.
â€śThey haven't said there should be a race to the bottom so that the tax cuts that were given by the former governor could stay intact. This is not what countries who actually believe that education is important do,â€ť she said.
Weingarten said part of the reason for her visit was to highlight the work that Woonsocket's Superintendent of Schools Giovanna Donoyan and Woonsocket Teachers Guild President Jeff Partington have been doing to â€śwork together as much as they can, even in a bad budget, to make sure that kids get a decent education.â€ť
The local educators are doing what their peers in Pawtucket and Providence have been doing to cope with the impact of the economic downturn on their districts, and that cooperative work should gain the attention of state governmental leaders, according to Weingarten.
â€śI am up here today, yes in a district that has just given pinks to every single one of its teachers, what message does that send to children and parents in this community when the state can't come in and say that our children are more important than anything else,â€ť she said.
â€śWhat message does it send when a (teachers) local has taken wage freeze after wage freeze, when a district has tried to go from a budget of $75 million to $59 million and still has to do all the new things we have to do to help make sure that kids can complete in a world economy,â€ť she said.
Weingarten described the state as shutting its door to Woonsocket and chided the Governor's Office and the General Assembly to do more for local schools.
â€śWe are here today to say to the governor, to the legislature, if you say that kids are important you actually have to do something to show that kids are important,â€ť Weingarten said.
The former 11th grade social studies teacher said her students in Brooklyn once taught her that â€śactions speak louder than words,â€ť and offered that lesson to state officials as well.
â€śIf you think the future of Rhode Island is important then you need to help make sure that kids get a decent education. It's not a race to the bottom,â€ť she said.
Rhode Island public employees such as Woonsocket's teachers have already made concessions on pay and benefits to help their districts but now the state must help, she argued.
â€śIf we really care about kids, we need to have the funding for kids like everyone in the world of nations do,â€ť she said. â€śDo we care about our kids, if we do we will find the funding,â€ť she said.
George Nee, Rhode Island president of the AFL-CIO, also voiced support for the city's teachers during the gathering and pointed to their acceptance of no pay raises in five years as an indication of their sacrifices to help the local school department.
â€śThis is not a spending issue this is a revenue issue, and people have been talking about spending, spending, spending,â€ť Nee said. â€śWe have heard what happens when the spending decreases and that is why we are today. We have to call upon our state leaders to stop the rhetoric that our property taxes are too high and that is what is driving people out of Rhode Island. â€śOur problem is is that we have a disjointed tax system and we have to start look at equality and fairness so we can provide the opportunity to these school systems and the employees who provide the educational opportunities to be able to turn this into a world class education system in Woonsocket and in our state,â€ť he said.
Nee argued that the state needs to start looking at its taxation system and looking to â€śtaxing people who have income and that are wealthy,â€ť and to â€śstop this reliance on the property tax and fund this system way it should be funded...â€ť
â€śThe time to do that is now so that Woonsocket does not become a situation that spreads to the rest of our community. They've made their fair share of sacrifices,â€ť Nee said.
Woonsocket Teacher Guild President Jeff Partington, who organized the event, also welcomed Woonsocket Superintendent of Schools Giovanna Donoyan to the podium while acknowledging their ongoing work to cope with the department's funding cuts and recent layoff action.
Donoyan pointed to the Teachers Guild and the Woonsocket School Department's â€ślong history of working together to do what is in the best interest of all students in Woonsocket,â€ť as helping in the current crisis.
â€śThe financial crisis that we are in right now makes us work together in order to move forward with uninterrupted educational services for all of our students,â€ť she said.
Donoyan said the school's department projected $10-million deficit was â€śof the greatest concern to all of us,â€ť but also explained how it has be long in coming due a structural deficiency in funding both at the local and state levels. In fact, she said the school department had operated on a budget of $75 million a dozen years ago, and yet now has been trying to operate on local and state funding totaling just $59 million even as the department's student needs continue to escalate. â€ś
The challenge of operating a school system under such circumstances has left Donoyan, who still considers herself a teacher â€śfirst and foremost,â€ť feeling like she â€śstepped into an enormous mess,â€ť as it's leader, she said.
â€śThe one thing is really clear to me, is that it is because of the dedicated teachers and the paraprofessionals and staff at each one of our schools that we are ready to teach our students each day,â€ť she said.
â€śI am forever grateful to the paraprofessionals and to the teachers who continue to step up to plate ready to take on more of the burden than they rightful should. It is because of that that our school department keeps functioning to the letter of the law,â€ť she said.
Donoyan said the solution to Woonsocket's school funding problems must come from the state and that she would â€śstand next toâ€ť the members of the AFT â€śas they demand that governor take an active interest in our school department.â€ť
â€śWe need funding and we need it now,â€ť she said. â€śAnd I stand next to the Woonsocket Teachers Guild as they demand a fair funding formula which none of us should be begging for, but it should be offered because it is the right thing to do,â€ť she said.
Partington said the Weingarten's visit would help call attention to the plight of local teachers and support staff.
Local teachers have been left demoralized by the system-wide layoffs and many, like Laquerre, are unsure of their futures with the district, he said.
â€śIt is a positive step for the membership to have someone from the National AFT to come here to Woonsocket offer them their support,â€ť Partington said.
As for Mayor Leo T. Fontaine's request for even greater concessions from the teachers, Partington said its too soon to say what will come from that request.
â€śWe are always willing to talk, but I have no comment at this time,â€ť Partington said.

Comments

March 24, 2012
by SilentChat (not verified),
3 years 6 days agoComment: 1034

I would just like to know what makes TEACHERS any more important than all the rest of us lowlifes (that aren't teachers) who are sitting in the unemployment lines and taking jobs at HALF what they use to make before the layoff. Do you really think YOU are the only ones HURTING? Join the crowd cause in reality YOU really are NO BETTER than the rest of us. We are ALL HURTING and cutting back more than we can AFFORD to. I just took a job for almost 5 bucks less an hour than I had before. So join me in the poor house!!

March 24, 2012
by SilentChat (not verified),
3 years 6 days agoComment: 1035

March 25, 2012
by RI is Home (not verified),
3 years 6 days agoComment: 1028

Just to clarify the Woonsocket Teachers' Guild position, if you have heard any speeches or read any articles in the Call, the City taxpayer is exhausted and the real reason for these deficits is that the State of RI has been underfunding urban schools since Carcieri cut aid to cities and towns in 2009.
We don't dispute there has been mismanagement by the school department but unfortunately there is nowhere to cut in the schools. We are at the bottom. Any cuts or layoffs will result in students sitting in a classroom without a teacher. It is a revenue problem not a cost problem.
Lastly, we know that the image of all unions have been tarnished in the past by impossible to sustain benefits. Woonsocket Teachers however have been more in line with more reasonable corporate benefits since 1994 when we began to pay 20% of healthcare (the only city union to do so) and we are the second lowest paid teachers in the state. We gave the city $3.6 million in annual savings in 2010, but the lack of funding brings us to where we are today.
If the State of RI wants your children to be considered to have the same opportunities as every other child in the state and have the best teachers stay in place, a solution must be found that increases funding to the schools.

I have no sympathy for the teacher's or any other union members in Woonsocket specifically and Rhode Island in general;. They keep crying (thanks to their union leaders) about how much they have sacrificed. For years, the unions have been bleeding the taxpayers with their greedy demands. Our useless politicians have constantly given in to those demands. It's time for the unions to get in touch with reality. The average citizen doesn't receive the lucrative pays that the union members receive. We don't receive the lavish benefits that these people have wrangled for themselves. And we definitely don't have the exhoribtant pension systems that they have. Have some concern for a change for the people who have to pay the bills in this city. Wake up and realize that many of us who have to pay these bills are on fixed incomes and are going to suffer tremendously with this supplemental tax that we can't afford. Finally, don't blame the taxpayers for your situation. Blame your school administration for spending funds that were not there. Blame the School Committee for not doing their job in overseeing the misspending of the School Department. Lastly, blame the Mayor and the City Council who have mismanaging the taxpayer's money for years. Ms Laquere, if you and any other teacher feel that you need to leave the community because you don't want to have anything to do with sacrificing - the goodbye and good riddance.

While she was building her "state of the art" lab i got layed-off (not a notice but a real honest to God layoff) and what was my reward? Tax and fee increases up the wazoo to help pay her salary.Try that for a "crushing" feeling.

With roughly 6000 students attending the Woonsocket School system it`s hard to believe that they are so out of wack.The per pupil spending on our children isbelow state average and in some cases our students are`nt even allowed to bring math books home so the kids can do their homework.It`s time to get back to basics.Last year I attended what turned out to be a Coleman Elementary fund raiser they had a raffle for a tank of oil.When I inquired wether or not the whole city was aware of this fund raiser I got blank stares.People it`s time to thinkout of the box.If they had raffled off a years supply of home heating fuel and opened it up to the state I think Coleman might have raised tensof thousands of dollors.How about25,000 home improvement prodject that`s worth raffling off and it will put locals to work.The state as well as the schools have got to stop taking and start giving or the City of Woonsocket will cease to exist.Govenor who`s next in line we have got to cut spending this can`t go on .Most of the people I know in Rhode Island actually work in Massachusetts.Why it`s been going on for years.If the teachers think they are doing such a hot job why do we have Woonsocket graduates who were at the top 10 percent of there class with bachelors degrees still working at Walmart?Or Owens and Minor?You really have`nt prepared our children all that well.Govenor Owens and Minor according to the cities website is it`s favorite place of employmentit`s located in Franklin Massachusetts,as previously pointed out.